on monday, obama will head to the florida institute of technology. in about half an hour, we will take you live to lynchburg for the event with vice-president joe biden and his wife. until then, a look at the battleground state of north carolina from this morning's "washington journal. tell us what makes north carolina battleground state. guest: traditionally, it has been a red state. it is moving more and more into a competitive state, and there are several reasons why. one of the things our organization does is ask every year the voters where they stand in terms of conservative level. only florida and virginia, in terms of southern states, are to the left, so it is pretty divided. it also has political progressives, so it has been pretty much a modern state traditionally. there has been a tremendous influx of people from around the country. particularly in the big metropolitan areas, and none has been changing the politics over the years. in addition, it has a significant african-american population. 22% is african american, which is the largest af